"If [Tony] Abbott were to become prime minister and continue that rhetoric and that posture and actually tries to translate that into reality, I really wonder whether he's trying to risk some sort of conflict with Indonesia," he said.

The Opposition's foreign affairs spokeswoman, Julie Bishop, slammed Mr Rudd's comments as "a shocking diplomatic gaffe" and called on him to retract the statement.

"They even tell you that Australia's a signatory to the Refugee Convention, so they think the policy is actually against Australia's international obligations under humanitarian laws."

Roberts says the Indonesian government realises that Mr Rudd's comments are a matter of "pre-election argy-bargy".

"When it comes to whether it would cause a conflict, I spoke to the president's foreign affairs spokesman Teuku Faizasyah earlier on this evening and he effectively dismissed those suggestions by Kevin Rudd as it being a political internal issue in Australia," Roberts said.

"What he seemed to be hinting at was that this was more about political argy-bargy and pre-election missives being sort of sent back and forth between the two parties, rather than something that they seriously need to consider as an option at the moment."

Meanwhile, Foreign Minister Bob Carr is already in Jakarta to lay the groundwork for Mr Rudd's meeting with the Indonesian president.

With asylum seekers expected to be high on the agenda, Senator Carr has questioned the United Nations' definition of a refugee.

At a news conference yesterday, he said he thinks nearly all of the people arriving in Australia by boat are "economic migrants".

"I think it is arguable that if someone is leaving the country and they are part of [the] majority and religious ethnic group, that they are not being persecuted in the way that refugee convention describes," he said.